You could argue the same thing about Taiwan, they didn't play any NA/EU/KR teams and they're topping their region quite decisively. It's just speculation, nothing is for certain until stage day.

A pro Zarya will always get charge, no matter what, otherwise there wouldn't be any pro Zarya. When you bubble somebody already taking fire, it's hard for the enemy team to stop shooting.

A pro Zarya is more about Cooldown management, survivability and ult farming imo.

I feel bad for Brasil, they seemed like genuine nice dudes in their intro clip.
Liko's genji is doing work for them though, even though I feel like Neil and Murizzz are struggling together. Neil dies first so much it's crazy.
This should be a 4-0, even with the way Horizon is going right now, but I hope they get the W tomorrow.

Sinatraa will get the charge, he's good enough on Zarya to farm it in almost any given situation. It's more a matter of how much pressure they apply on Rawkus, cause it looked like his priority was Sinatraa whenever he was involved in a fight.

I mean he was at a 100 against a Zenless Tracerless dive on Hollywood A.

Honestly, if it wasn't for Crnkz and Nesh, I don't see Germany winning this at all.

There's that too, but there were 3 defensive ults used with at least 2 people down on Hollywood.

And Skipjack is handing primal rages like cookies...

The difference maker is definitely the supports, Israel's defensive ults are legit thrown away.

Well Kyky spiced it up predicting a 4-0 for Israel.
Half the german squad are veterans who haven't been playing at a top level for quite some time now. I wouldn't say they're a stacked roster, but in my eyes definitely a win for DE.

My boi Nesh BlessRNG

For sure, but there are players that still play tremendously well given that disadvantage. I guess my point was back then, I thought he was overrated because of how highly a lot of people were speaking about him.

He's definitely performing right now.

Kruise's blades on point, Smex and Chris working reaaally well, Realzx and Boombox sticking together, and MikeyA really impressing me, miles better than when he was on FaZe.

On the other side you can see Logix and Spree trying, but this is a tall order for them unfortunately. UK looking too spicy right now.

That comeback was hugely thanks to Baconjack, but Brazil threw away so many ults when at a disadvantage.

Damn. So unfortunate that they messed up their support ults in streets. This is looking like a banger game already.

Nevermind, TWN was just warming up.

Vamo my braziw bros, I believe

Sinatraa's Zarya POUNDS

'ZP was Shaq's nemesis in high school'. God twitch can be funny sometimes

Honestly was never impressed by Taejun. Imo he'll be on the bench unless LH runs triple tank (Zunba Zarya and Taejun on Dva/Hog if he ever comes back). WhoRU or Gido, depending on what they need, will have the spot majority of the time.

And why is Geguri listed as Genguri ? Have we been wrong all along ? Typo ? If it's for the memes I applaud.

There is no way the current C9 roster moves to London unless there's a matching number of orgs/investers buying EU spots which seems very unlikely.
I mean the Overwatch League annoucement said that orgs needed to provide their players/staff with housing but they didn't mention where (in the city they represent or the org's chosing).

I'm not sure any team would go in with a 12 pack. Too many salaries, 12 people to house, double the number of egos to manage, add to that players that don't wanna warm the bench to play one game a semester.

A 7 or 8 man wouldn't be so bad if your core roster doesn't have much flexibility. But I don't see Numlocked coming back, with how it happened it doesn't seem likely. We haven't heard anything about Xepher in quite some time, and seeing Kaiser go back to SK, you never know what might happen with him, but they have Harb already on flex, not sure about doubling down on that.
I'm all for the Seagull comeback, but no way do these 3 players share 2 spots, I'd rather have Seagull Sinatraa but that's just me.
And about Grego, I never understood the situation he's in. I'm sure he tried out for teams but he didn't land a spot in almost a year now. It's weird to me.
But Sephy had DhaK as shot caller for a long time , and with what they accomplished I'm hoping they talk soon.

That Grego-IDD tweet was in August 2016 my boi LUL.

And NRG were looking for a main tank that micromanages, I'm assuming that was Seamoose's call to have that kind of tanker on the team. Might be different with Sephy.
Sadly, Kaiser is on RunAway's Apex S5 squad so no go. However, Gamsu has a really solid reputation, could be a good addition. Ryb is on the new Italian org MKers, and I think you mean Desro (former Rise) unless we're not thinking of the same guy.

I'm sure there'll be a lot of tryouts going on with a new coach and what's on the line, exciting stuff. AGAIN.

Easy thing to say after they made a name for themselves..

Same here. I never understood the crazy hype surrounding IDDQD, I mean he's a really good player I'm sure but rarely did he perform in tournaments, just my opinion though.

As for Zarya, I'd say Sinatraa is the slayer kind; and I watched him get 3 gravs in 2 minutes on Hollywood 1st defense the other day, which still boggles my mind to this day, he'd burn his ally shield to stay max energy and pound. While Seagull is more the lifesaver kind, bubble always at the ready, pretty decent energy management and doesn't fucking die.
So I'm guessing, they could swap both depending on how they see the game going, which is always a good thing.

Kresnik didn't like to/couldn't play monkey, which had Emongg playing it when they got off their classic Rein Hog 2-2-2 setup. Emongg and 3D could be good additions, but there are better players out there I feel like.

Personally if they could bring in DhaK and Sinatraa, it'll be a reaaally good start, assuming of course that Seagull isn't coming back to the squad. Those 2 are top tier FAs at the moment.

S E A M ResidentSleeper ResidentSleeper S E

https://twitter.com/NRGgg/status/895336744505057280

Seamoose will no longer be NRG's head coach, as Brad Rajani, formerly Selfless' coach, assumes the position.

The way Selfless progressed from being an unknown in the scene to a consistent top tier team in NA, in a matter of months, can only mean good things for NRG.

Baconjack is slowly becoming one of my favourite tags.

I see a lot of Cwoosh and Shadder being compared to Seagull. You guys do realise that they just performed well on Genji right ? Nothing else. And by well, I mean really good more often than not, but inconsistent nonetheless (i.e. contenders, OWWC). Not saying Seagull is the god Genji but he's not a garbagecan, even Surefour said he's top 5 NA on Genji.

Besides, Seagull's hero pool is one of the largest in the scene. His Mei is hands down the best in the west, and I don't care if he hasn't played pro in a decade, he'll still be the best Mei out there. Tviq's is the closest to him as he pounds on her as well.
His Zarya is praised by everybody, no exception. Not the best but he pounds.
Add to that, a top 5 Pharah NA, and I'm sure if he puts some time into her in pro play he'll get back to where he was with her. Plus a few other heroes (Junkrat, Torb notably) that he can easily play as niche picks in pro tournaments.

The fact of the matter is, Seagull has never been the in game star player that his teammates will dedicate almost everything to set him up for plays. Now don't get me wrong, this might have been the way they played and old LG/early NRG had a very capable second DPS player in Gods. But you look at early Envy/C9 and Kyky's AMA a few weeks ago, and you realise more that their whole teams were dedicated to setting up Taimou/Surefour to carry.
Plus, Seagull has always been in teams lacking leadership and in game communication. Doesn't look like a coincidence to me, and if it's not, Seagull needs to step up and embrace the role he needs to play in his team.

Ilios Well would make for some spice BO1s tbh

Most underrated pun

I've been playing monkey for 4 seasons now, and I've popped primal rage when I was low on health and still died either hearing the ult sound but my ult didn't pop, or, and this has happened to me twice to this day, took my ult charge and didn't give me the 1k hp.
The latter happened to xQc a few weeks back on stream.

The explanation you provide makes sense, but there are still some small timing issues on ult casting.

As for sound barrier, I agree, imo pros would take more risks (i.e. not instantly popping it in a grav, but rather waiting an extra .5 or 1 second to maximise value out of it) if it was more reliable online. Maybe decreasing cast time as a QoL ? Not sure about this, might be a big buff.

:candle:

MESR and Shadder sould find a new home soon hopefully, NRG maybe ?

Another reason Blizzard is doing the ultimate drain, and I just thought of this, is ping issues. So many times have I heard my ult cast but on the killcam nothing happens. How's the game supposed to interpret that ?
So I'm guessing it's a compromise.

I DON'T KNOW MAN.

Edit: Just read about the latency part on sound barrier, didn't see it first time my bad.

Jake is scary. Not as in mechanical or smart scary, but like you watch the guy play or hear him talk, he has charisma given how young he is. His mindset makes him a huge threat I think. Good thing he's team captain.
Also, I never thought I'd say this, but CoolMatt's Dva play was sick on FNRGFE. Rawkus is comfortable on Lucio if they decide to pull a Pharamercy as Adam's Mercy is arguably the best in NA. And Sinatraa is Sinatraa, kid's nuts.

And FCTFCTN is still the best tag I've seen. Ever.

As Ygritte would say, I know nothing about Taiwan so I won't say anything. But this match is promising.

Neil bringing the Brazilian firestrikes PogChamp
Been hearing about both these teams for a while, excited to see them in action.

I agree with Kuroi. Hitting Q should be an instant drain, you get CC'd, melted or frozen ? Tough shit.
Seriously though, I think the drain part on ultimates is Blizzard's way of not punishing lesser skilled players for being too horny in a 1v6 and getting slammed on.
Plus how is a team supposed to know if the ult has been used or not ? It doesn't happen often but when it does, it's really confusing and potentially fight/game losing.

Great news. One question though, as I'm sadly misinformed on this, what is South Korea's stance on females playing games for a living. I know gaming is way more accepted there than in the west, and making a carreer out of it is definitely still kinda tabou in EU/NA.
I'm curious about this cause I'm sure there is more than a few female players that can compete, hopefully Geguri's paving the way.

Giving feedback on such a technical matter is tricky imo. I feel like a coaches/players/casters feedback thread is better than everybody just saying whatever they think, even if legitimate, because they'll provide the why when how and all.
Cause as you said, you put a thread on Reddit and it goes to !remindmes and shit quickfast.

Like I wanna see a Lucio peeling for his Zen and fragging the Tracer, but then you have his Genji pulling his sword and I wanna see Winston/Dva tanking CCs for him. Yet they have to decide what to show and as I said before, this meta moves too fast too much to give the best viewing experience at all times.

https://twitter.com/Alchemister5/status/889081970054975491

They were 5 in Sydney, but 2 of those are observers for ESL AU, so I'm guessing the 3 others do all 4 destinations and get a couple of people in to help once there.

Sydney viewing was the best imo. This weekend, there were a few major kills (almost all of them by Tracers) happening off cam and stuff. But honestly, with this meta, it's hard to decide whether to follow a Tracer in the backline, chances are she's just being annoying to the backline.
And I totally agree that more support observing would be uber good. Better angle on the fight. Plus I wanna see more Tobi tbh.
It wasn't their best performance, but it wasn't bad at all. I'm sure the more time they get to do this together, the better observing will get.

I get the banter and all, but who the fuck calls people out like that on camera ? That was W.E.I.R.D

P.S Mangachu kinda deserved it saying ranked relaxed the whole team LUL

I said earlier that they don't necessarily need a 76 to deal with a Pharah Mercy, but you can't logically spend 3 games eating Pharah rockets on the forehead without even trying something else.
I honestly underestimated Mangachu's Pharah, his poke damage value was amazing, and this was a case of EU not playing with/against Mercy at all in recent times, they usually couple Zen with Pharah.

Like even SDB drifted on the point at the end just by himself, it's like he zoned out..

Ok Mangachu is a nut, like he doesn't go for the crazy rockets, but the dude doesn't die.
And I feel so bad for Russia, Forsak3n is obviously struggling on Mercy, they shouldn't try to mirror.
But this is a PogChamp of a game

Hollywood looked so messy for Canada, but 2 dragonblades clutched the whole map. Also Forsak3n had a 2 piece and forced S4 to recall, and Txao matrixed SDB that whole time, but went unnoticed sadly
Ilios was a good sweep, but it proved Russia's traditional dive outperforms Canada's.

Coordinated CA looks very strong, but more often than not, they're just everywhere.

Well can't blame em, having to play the same heroes for months now must get somewhat stale. At the level they're at, they simply can afford to do so.
Plus it makes it more interesting for the viewers.

SBB savaging on everybody. D A M N.

You say Russia doesn't have as much coordination as IMT, and I totally agree, but you do realise that Canada doesn't have as much coordination as Arc6. The teams not having set plays and much play time together is true, but it works both ways.

And I hope they make the combo work, Pharah's probably my favourite hero so I wouldn't mind that at all.
Also, in my opinion, tank synergy will be the decider tomorrow. And I don't know what to make of Roolf's Sombra, had good and not so good moments, although he's been stellar on every other support he played.

But if I wasn't clear, my bad, but I wasn't bashing on people speculating, I do it myself. It's more of an existential question. As in some people believe that it's an exact science to predict the outcome of a game.

Why are people basing their guesses on hero by hero comparison ?
Surefour is not the best on any hero, but he's still here, still feared. He's like Varys. The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish, and he motherfucking keeps on paddling.

Besides, IMT pelted Arc6's Pharamercy (arguably in top 2 NA) running Genji Tracer. You don't necessarily need a 76 to counter the combo, and Russia's Genji Tracer duo are individually scary. S C A R Y.

So if CA decides to run Pharah, they damn better be prepared. Can't wait, it's gonna be a sick game.

According to what xQc said, Mistakes is gonna be gunning for him so I doubt Mangachu plays anything other than Dva. Unless S4 runs Pharah, but then they have Agilities on Tracer :/
As much as I love Pharah, I'd rather see CA come out with the win.

If Agilities is on Tracer, Mistakes wins. If he's on Genji, it's another story.

3-0 in 30 minutes. I mean, is this even debatable ?

Holy farm. I'm happy to see junkrat/Rein-Zarya play, but feelsbad for Austria.
On a side note, how many junkrat mains will arise in comp after this game ?